“Nothing will even be close,” he said. “I think it will be 10 times bigger than the next biggest product ever made.” Once scaled, the 54-year-old said the autonomous bot will be an “infinite money glitch” that will account for 80 per cent of Tesla’s value, pushing it towards a $25 trillion market valuation by 2050. If such ambitions are realised, Mr Musk will be due the biggest pay packet in history, having agreed a $1 trillion bonus if he reaches various targets, which include reaching a company valuation of $8.5 trillion over the next decade. All this will depend on whether the robot lives up to Mr Musk’s hype. open image in gallery A Tesla Optimus robot scoops popcorn and waves at attendees during the opening of the Tesla Diner and Drive-In restaurant in California last year (AFP via Getty) Not everyone is convinced about Mr Musk’s ideas for a general-purpose humanoid assistant, with MIT roboticist Rodney Brooks claiming it will be technologically and economically unfeasible. “The general plan is that humanoid robots will be ‘plug compatible’ with humans and be able to step in and do the manual things that humans do at lower prices and just as well,” Professor Brooks, who co-founded Roomba maker iRobot, wrote in a September blog post. “In my opinion, believing that this will happen any time within decades is pure fantasy thinking.” Rather than robots like Optimus that resemble humans, the robotics pioneer envisions a future where robots take many different forms, each excelling in different roles. Before then, he warns that many billions of dollars will likely disappear in trying to develop robots like the one Mr Musk is betting on. More about